Religion in Canada

[Glacier]

It sure seems to me like this would actually be a new trend though. I'm pretty sure it used to be opposite with especially protestant church-goers being almost certain to be politically conservative. I wonder how much that's changed.

The study's methodology seems a bit off to me in that they seemed to exclude some countries that didn't give the answer they were looking for. Either way, it's actually a new phenomenon that has religious people leaning right in Canada, the USA, and all over Europe. Until the 1970s there were evangelical protestants like Jimmy Carter on the left/Democrats just as much as the right.

I have not looked into this trend in detail, but I suspect it has something to do with the culture wars that sprang from the '60s movement. Somehow one political wing took up the charge for change while the other did not. Political philosophies change over time, and sometimes in opposite directions at opposite times. What is left today is right tomorrow, and vice versa. As they say, "What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun." Like how back in the 19th century, the blacks in the south were all Republicans while the whites were Democrats who tried to keep slavery going kind of thing.

Oh, my graphs are wrong above, or at least the conclusion is wrong. The reason why is that provinces with low religious affiliation like Alberta tend to go Conservative while provinces like Newfoundland where 96% of the population is Christian have been shunning the Conservatives of late. This gives the impression that less religious areas of the country vote conservative, which is true on a certain overall level, but individually, for every single province in the country, the conservatives get more votes in more religious areas. Here are BC, Alberta, and Quebc as examples (note, I've gotten rid of the double negative by graphing religion instead of non-religion):

[Glacier]

Here is a map showing the dominant religions in Canada and the USA. This is obviously out of date since the "no religion" section is quite a bit higher than that today in BC. They are probably going off of the 2001 Census, and not the 2011 Census.

Here's another one that separates the genders...

[bob vernon]

The ultimate irony is that the fundamentalists tend to be conservatives. And the non-church goers tend to be leftists. And isn't the story of Christ sharing the loaves and fishes equally among all people some kind of socialist ideal where everybody is treated equally? You'd think that fundamentalists would be the socialists. But no. And Kane and Abel. "I'm not my brother's keeper" is more of a conservative value than a Christian one. And caring for one's fellow man is a leftist ideal and conservatives want us all to be competitive and screw the other guy out of his money. What gives?

What about Steve's belief in the Rapture and the End of Days. When we get involved in the final battle between good and evil and the leaders of the good side get into God's inner circle. Steve seems to be pushing us in that direction. He wouldn't fancy himself as one of God's inner cabinet, would he?